Game program and game apparatus

ABSTRACT

A game apparatus performs game processing on the basis of operation data output from a first input device including a first acceleration sensor and an angular velocity sensor and a second input device including a second acceleration sensor. The game apparatus calculates an orientation of an object within a game space on the basis of a first acceleration and a second acceleration, and causes the object to make a predetermined motion on the basis of the angular velocity data.

CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATION

The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No, 2008-181716 isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a game apparatus and a game program. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to a game apparatus and agame program which allow a player to play a game by adding a motion to acontroller itself by the player.

2. Description of the Related Art

One example of a game apparatus of such a kind is disclosed in anonpatent literature 1(http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/controllers/index.html). In the relatedart, “Wii remote controller” (Wii: registered trademark) has athree-axis acceleration sensor for detecting changes of tilts andmotions of itself. “Nunchaku” also has a three-axis acceleration sensor.

In order to perform the game on the outputs from the three-axisacceleration sensors, the player perform an operation by swinging andtilting the Wii remote controller and the Nunchaku while holding the Wiiremote controller with one hand and the Nunchaku the other hand.

In the aforementioned nonpatent literature 1, since the accelerationsensor is used, the change of the attitude of the controller can bedetermined by the gravitational acceleration, but there is a problem ofbeing unable to detect the rotation about a yaw direction, that is, inthe direction of the gravitational force. Furthermore, if accelerationother than gravity is highly applied, there is a problem of being unableto accurately calculate the orientation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide anovel game apparatus and a novel game program.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a game apparatusand a game program which are able to accurately utilizing attitudes androtations.

The present invention adopts the following construction in order tosolve the aforementioned problems.

A first invention is a storage medium readable by a computer of a gameapparatus having a first input device including a first accelerationsensor and a second input device including a second acceleration sensorand an angular velocity sensor provided to at least any one of the firstinput device and the second input device, and performing game processingon the basis of operation data output from the first input device andthe second input device, the storage medium storing a game program, andthe game program causes the computer to execute a data acquiring stepfor acquiring first acceleration data based on an output from the firstacceleration sensor, second acceleration data based on an output fromthe second acceleration sensor, and angular velocity data based on anoutput from the angular velocity sensor, on the basis of the operationdata; an object orientation controlling step for controlling anorientation of an object within a game space on the basis of the firstacceleration data and the second acceleration data; and an object motioncon-trolling step for controlling a motion of the object on the basis ofthe angular velocity data.

A second invention is a storage medium in the first invention, whereinthe object motion controlling step includes an object accelerationcontrolling step for controlling a moving velocity of the object suchthat the object accelerates within the game space on the basis of anangular velocity about a predetermined axis.

A third invention is a storage medium in the second invention, whereinthe object acceleration controlling step controls a moving velocity ofthe object such that the object accelerates within the game space in acase a value of the angular velocity about the predetermined axis isabove a threshold value.

A fourth invention is a storage medium in the first invention, whereinthe object motion controlling step includes an object rotationcontrolling step for rotating the object on the basis of an angularvelocity about a predetermined axis.

A fifth invention is a storage medium the first invention, wherein theobject orientation controlling step includes an average attitudecalculating step for calculating an average attitude being an average ofthe attitudes of the first input device and the second input device onthe basis of the first acceleration data and the second accelerationdata, and an object orientation calculating step for calculating anorientation of an object within the game space in correspondence to theaverage attitude calculated by the average attitude calculating step.

A sixth invention is a storage medium in the fifth invention, whereinthe average attitude calculating step includes a first attitudecalculating step for calculating an attitude of the first input devicefrom the first acceleration data, a second attitude calculating step forcalculating an attitude of the second input device from the secondacceleration data, and an averaging step for averaging the attitude ofthe first input device and the attitude of the second input devicerespectively calculated by the first attitude calculating step and thesecond attitude calculating step.

A seventh invention is a storage medium in the first invention, whereinthe game program causes the computer to further execute an object movingdirection controlling step for setting a moving direction of the objectaccording to the orientation calculated by the object orientationcontrolling step.

An eighth invention is a storage medium in the seventh invention,wherein the first input device and/or the second input device has atleast one operatable button, and the data acquiring step furtherincludes a button data acquiring step for acquiring button operationdata indicating that the button is operated on the basis of theoperation data, the game program causes the computer to further executean object velocity controlling step for controlling a moving velocity ofthe object to a direction set by the object moving direction controllingstep on the basis of the button operation data.

A ninth invention is a storage medium in the eighth invention, whereinthe object motion controlling step includes an object accelerationcontrolling step for accelerating the object in the direction set by theobject moving direction controlling step on the basis of an angularvelocity about a predetermined axis.

A tenth invention is a game apparatus having a first input deviceincluding a first acceleration sensor, a second input device including asecond acceleration sensor and an angular velocity sensor provided to atleast any one of the first input device and the second input device, andperforming game processing on the basis of operation data output fromthe first input device and the second input device, comprises a dataacquiring means for acquiring first acceleration data based on an outputfrom the first acceleration sensor, second acceleration data based on anoutput from the second acceleration sensor and angular velocity databased on an output from the angular velocity sensor, on the basis of theoperation data; an object orientation controlling means for controllingan orientation of an object within a game space on the basis of thefirst acceleration data and the second acceleration data; and an objectmovement controlling means for controlling a movement of the object onthe basis of the angular velocity data.

An eleventh invention is a game controlling method of a game apparatushaving a first input device including a first acceleration sensor, asecond input device including a second acceleration sensor and anangular velocity sensor provided to at least any one of the first inputdevice and the second input device, and performing game processing onthe basis of operation data output from the first input device and thesecond input device, includes a data acquiring, step for acquiring firstacceleration data based on an output from the first acceleration sensor,second acceleration data based on an output from the second accelerationsensor and angular velocity data based on an output from the angularvelocity sensor, on the basis of the operation data; an objectorientation controlling step for controlling an orientation of an objectwithin a game space on the basis of the first acceleration data and thesecond acceleration data; and an object motion controlling step forcontrolling a motion of the object on the basis of the angular velocitydata.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a novelgame apparatus and a novel game program. In addition, it is possible toprovide a game apparatus and a game program which can more accuratelyuse orientations and rotations in the game.

Specifically, in the first invention and the tenth invention, while anorientation of an object is controlled by acceleration, a movement ofthe object can be controlled by an angular velocity, capable ofexpanding an operation of the game.

In the second invention and the third invention, by rotating the firstinput device in addition to the orientation control of the object incorrespondence to the tilt of the input device by acceleration, it ispossible to accelerate the object. For example, if an acceleration ismade in response to the rotation in the pitch direction from the player,an intuitive operation like an operation of a motorbike can beperformed.

In the fourth invention, while the orientation of the object iscontrolled in correspondence to the tilt of the input device byacceleration, the rotation of the object can be instructed throughrotation, so that it is possible to cause the object make an action withthe orientation control performed.

In the fifth invention and the sixth invention, by the attitude beingthe average of the attitude of the first input device and the attitudeof the second input device, the orientation of the object is controlled,so that an effect of erroneous operations and an effect of variation inthe way of holding the controllers by the player can be reduced. Inaddition, even if another operation of adding an angular velocity to thefirst input device is performed, it is possible to reduce the effect tothe orientation control.

In the seventh invention, the eighth invention, and the ninth invention,the movement of the object can be controlled by a motion of the inputdevice, capable of implementing an intuitive operation.

The above described objects and other objects, features, aspects andadvantages of the present invention will become more apparent from thefollowing detailed description of the present invention when taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative view showing an appearance of a firstcontroller (remote controller) applied to FIG. 1 embodiment, FIG. 2(A)is a perspective view of the first controller as seeing it from aboverear, and FIG. 2(B) is a perspective view of the first controller asseeing it from below front.

FIG. 3 is an illustrative view showing an appearance of a secondcontroller (Nunchaku) applied to the first embodiment, FIG. 3(A) is aperspective view of the second controller as seeing it from above rear,and FIG. 3(B) is a perspective view of the second controller as seeingit from below front.

FIG. 4 is an illustrative view showing an appearance of a connector ofthe second controller.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing a manner in which a cord of astrap attached to the first controller is hang and retained with a bookof the connector in a state that the connector of the second controlleris connected to the first controller.

FIG. 6 is an illustrative view showing an appearance of a gyro sensorunit applied to FIG. 1 embodiment, FIG. 6(A) is a perspective view ofthe gyro sensor unit as seeing it from above front, and FIG. 6(B) is aperspective view of the gyro sensor unit as seeing it from rear back.

FIG. 7 is an illustrative view showing structure of the gyro sensorunit.

FIG. 8 is an illustrative view showing a state in which the gyro sensorunit is connected to the first controller.

FIG. 9 is an illustrative view showing a state in which the secondcontroller is connected to the first controller via the gyro sensorunit.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration of FIG. 1embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration of all thecontrollers applied to FIG. 1 embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an illustrative view summarizing a state when a game isplayed by utilizing the controller connected with the gyro sensor unitshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 13 is all illustrative view showing viewing angles of the markersand the controller shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 14 is an illustrative view showing one example of an imaged imageincluding object images.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration of the gyrosensor unit between the first controller and the second controller inthe controllers in FIG. 11.

FIG. 16 is an illustrative view showing a data format dealt by the gyrosensor unit, and FIG. 16(A) is an illustrative view showing a format ofgyro data and FIG. 16(B) is an illustrative view showing a format ofsecond controller data.

FIG. 17 is an illustrative view showing a yaw angle, a pitch angle, anda roll angle which can be detected by the gyro sensor.

FIG. 18 is an illustrative view showing one example of a state that agame player holds the first controller and the second controller when heor she actually plays the game.

FIG. 19 is an illustrative view showing a table in which a control by amicrocomputer of the gyro sensor unit is described every mode.

FIG. 20 is an illustrative view showing a mode selection applied to thegyro sensor unit, and FIG. 20(A) is an illustrative view showing a modeselection in a case that the application is a gyro-compatible type, andFIG. 20(B) is all illustrative view showing a mode selection in a casethat the application is a gyro-non-compatible type.

FIG. 21 is an illustrative view showing a manner in which a player playsa personal watercraft game in the first embodiment.

FIG. 22 is illustrative views showing each movement of a water skiobject within a game space in a personal watercraft game in thisembodiment.

FIG. 23 is illustrative views showing an orientation controlling methodof an object on the basis of acceleration in the game of thisembodiment.

FIG. 24 is all illustrative view explaining an operation based on anangular velocity in the game of this embodiment.

FIG. 25 is a view showing a memory map of data to be used in the game ofthis embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart showing game processing of this embodiment.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing game processing of this embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1, a game system 10 of one embodiment of thisinvention includes a video game apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as“game apparatus”) 12 and a controller 14. The controller 14 functions asan input device or an operating device by a user or a player. The gameapparatus 12 and the controller 14 are connected by radio. For example,the wireless communication is executed according to a Bluetooth(registered trademark) standard, but may be executed according to otherstandards, such as an infrared ray communication, a wireless LAN, etc.

The game apparatus 12 includes a roughly rectangular parallelepipedhousing 16, and the housing 16 is furnished with a disk slot 18 and anexternal memory card slot cover 20 on a front surface. An optical disk22 (FIG. 10) as one example of an information storage medium storinggame program and data, etc. is inserted from the disk slot 18 to beloaded into a disk drive 74 (see FIG. 10) within the housing 16. Insidethe external memory card slot cover 20 is provided a connector forexternal memory card 48 (FIG. 10) through which a memory card (notshown) is inserted. The external memory card is employed for loading thegame program, etc. read from the optical disk 22 to temporarily storeit, storing (saving) game data (result data or proceeding data of thegame) of the game played by means of the game system 10, and so forth.It should be noted that storing the game data described above may beperformed on an internal memory such as a flash memory 64 (FIG. 10) inplace of the external memory card.

The game apparatus 12 has an AV cable connector (not illustrated) on arear surface of the housing 16, and by means of the connector, the gameapparatus 12 is connected to a monitor (display) 26 via an AV cable 24.The monitor 26 is typically a color television receiver, and through theAV cable 24, a video signal from the game apparatus 12 is input to avideo input terminal of the color television, and a sound signal isinput to a sound input terminal thereof. Accordingly, a game image of athree-dimensional (3D) video game, for example, is displayed on thescreen of the color television (monitor) 26, and a stereo game sound,such as a game music, a sound effect is output from integrated speakers28.

Furthermore, around the monitor 26 (upper side of the monitor 26 in thisembodiment), a marker unit 30 including two infrared ray LEDs (markers)30 a and 30 b is provided. This marker unit 30 is connected to the gameapparatus 12 through a power cable (not illustrated). Thus, power issupplied to the marker unit 30 from the game apparatus 12. This allowsthe markers 30 a, 30 b to emit light, and output infrared ray ahead ofthe monitor 26.

Here, the power supply of the game apparatus 12 is applied by a generalAC adapter (not illustrated). The AC adapter is connected to a standardwall socket for home use, and converts a house current to a DC voltagesignal small enough to drive the game apparatus 12. In anotherembodiment, batteries may be used as a power supply.

The controller 14, which is described in detail later, includes a firstcontroller 34 and a second controller 36 each capable of being held withone hand and a gyro sensor unit 100 detachably attached to the firstcontroller 34. On a rear end surface of the first controller 34, aconnector 42 (FIG. 2(A), FIG. 11) is provided, and at an end of a cable38 extending from the rear end of the second controller 36, a connector40 (FIG. 1, FIG. 5, FIG. 11) is provided, and on a front end surface anda real end surface of the gyro sensor unit 100, connectors 106 and 108(FIG. 6(A), FIG. 6(B), FIG. 7 and FIG. 11) are respectively provided.The connector 106 at the front end surface of the gyro sensor unit 100is connectable to the connector 42 of the first controller 34, and theconnector 40 of the second controller 36 is connectable to the connector42 of the first controller 34 or the connector 108 at the rear endsurface of the gyro sensor unit 100.

By connecting the connector 106 to the connector 42, the gyro sensorunit 100 is physically and electrically connected to the firstcontroller 34. From the gyro sensor unit 100 thus attached (connected asa single unit) to the first controller 34, angular velocity dataindicating an angular velocity of the first controller 34 is output.

In a case that the gyro sensor unit 100 is thus attached to the firstcontroller 34, the connector 40 of the second controller 36 is connectedto the connector 108 at the rear end surface of the gyro sensor unit100. That is, the connector 42 has a structure selectively connectableto either of the connector 106 or the connector 40, and the connector 40has a structure of selectively connectable to either of the connector 42or the connector 108. Accordingly, the connector 106 and the connector108 provided to the gyro sensor unit 100 cannot actually be connectedbecause of being a part of the same housing, but have shapes connectablewith each other. Input data from the second controller 36 is applied tothe first controller 34 via the cable 38 and the gyro sensor unit 100.The first controller 34 transmits controller data including input datafrom the first controller 34 itself, angular velocity data from the gyrosensor unit 100 and the input data from the second controller 36 to thegame apparatus 12.

On the other hand, in a case that the connector 40 is connected to theconnector 42, operation data or input data from the second controller 36are applied to the first controller 34 via the cable 38, and the firstcontroller 34 transmits controller data including input data from thefirst controller 34 itself and the input data from the second controller36 to the game apparatus 12.

In the system here for transmitting input data from the first controller34 and input data from the second controller 36, a data amount to betransmitted at a time may sometimes be designed so as not be added, butin a case that the gyro sensor unit 100 is added, by alternatelyoutputting angular velocity data from the gyro sensor unit 100 and inputdata from the second controller 36 to the first controller 34, it ispossible to transmit both of the data. The data control can be performedby the gyro sensor unit 100, so that the first controller 34 and thesecond controller 36 are not required to be changed in design.

Thus, the first controller 34 inputs a operation signal and operationdata (data) from the second controller 36 and the gyro sensor unit 100as well as a operation signal and operation data (data) from thecontroller 34 itself away from the game apparatus 12 in a wirelessmanner, and therefore, the first controller 34 may be called as a“remote controller”. Furthermore, the second controller 36 is calledunder the nickname of “Nunchaku” from its shape, and thus will be calledbelow too.

Thus, the gyro sensor unit 100 is an expanding unit for adding a gyrofunction to the first controller 34 by utilizing the existing firstcontroller 34 and second controller 36 as it is.

In the game system 10, a user turns the power of the game apparatus 12on for playing the game (or another application), then selects anappropriate optical disk 22 storing a video game (or another applicationthe player wants to play), and loads the optical disk 22 into the diskdrive 74 through the disk slot 18 of the game apparatus 12. In responsethereto, the game apparatus 12 starts to execute a video game or anotherapplication on the basis of the software stored in the optical disk 22.The user operates the controller 14 in order to apply an input to thegame apparatus 12.

FIG. 2 shows one example of an appearance of the remote controller orthe first controller 34. FIG. 2(A) is a perspective view of the firstcontroller 34 as seeing it from above rear, and FIG. 2(B) is aperspective view of the first controller 34 as seeing it from belowfront.

The first controller 34 has a housing 44 formed by plastic molding, forexample. The housing 44 is formed into an approximately rectangularparallelepiped shape regarding a back and forth direction (Z-axisdirection shown) as a longitudinal direction, and has a size smallenough to be held by one hand of a child and an adult. As one example,the housing 44 has a length or a width approximately the same as that ofa palm of a person. A player can perform a game operation by means ofthe first controller 34, that is, by pushing buttons provided on it andby changing a position and a direction of the first controller 34itself.

The housing 44 is provided with a plurality of operation buttons. Thatis, on an upper face of the housing 44, there are provided a cross key46 a, a 1 button 46 b, a 2 button 46 c, an A button 46 d, a − (minus)button 46 e, a HOME button 46 f, a + (plus) button or start button 46 g.Meanwhile, on the bottom surface of the housing 44, a concave portion isformed, and on the reward inclined surface of the concave portion, a Bbutton 46 h is provided. Each of the buttons (switches) 46 a-46 h isassigned an appropriate function depending on a game program to beexecuted by the game apparatus 12. Furthermore, the housing 44 has apower switch 46 i for turning on and off the power of the main body ofthe game apparatus 12 from a remote place on a top surface. Therespective buttons (switches) provided on the first controller 34 mayinclusively be indicated with the use of the reference numeral 46 as anoperating means or an input means.

The cross key 46 a is a four directional push switch, including fourdirections of front (or upper), back (or lower), right and leftoperation parts. By operating any one of the operation parts, it ispossible to instruct a moving direction of a character or object (playercharacter or player object) that is be operable by a player or instructthe moving direction of a cursor.

The I button 46 b and the 2 button 46 c are respectively push buttonswitches, and are used for a game operation such as adjusting aviewpoint position and a viewpoint direction on displaying the 3D gameimage, i.e. a position and an image angle of a virtual camera.Alternatively, the 1 button 46 b and the 2 button 46 c can be used forthe same operation as that of the A-button 46 d and the B button 46 h oran auxiliary operation.

The A-button switch 46 d is the push button switch, and is used forcausing the player character or the player object to take an actionother than that instructed by a directional instruction, specificallyarbitrary actions such as hitting (punching), throwing, grasping(acquiring), riding, and jumping, etc. For example, in an action game,it is possible to give an instruction to jump, punch, move a weapon, andso forth. Also, in a roll playing game (RPG) and a simulation RPG, it ispossible to instruct to acquire an item, select and determine the weaponand command, and so forth. Furthermore, the A button switch 46 d is usedfor instructing decision of an icon or a button image pointed by thepointer (instruction image) on the game screen in a case that thecontroller 34 is used as a pointing device. For example, when the iconand the button image are decided, an instruction or a command (commandof the game) set in advance corresponding thereto can be input.

The − button 46 e, the HOME button 46 f, the + button 46 g, and thepower switch 46 i are also push button switches. The − button 46 e isused for selecting a game mode. The HOME button 46 f is used fordisplaying a game menu (menu screen). The +button 46 g is used forstarting (re-starting) or pausing a game. The power switch 46 i is usedfor turning on/off a power supply of the game apparatus 12 by remotecontrol.

In this embodiment, note that the power switch for turning on/off thecontroller 34 itself is not provided, and the controller 34 is set aton-state by operating any one of the operating means and the input means46 of the controller 34, and when not operated for a certain period oftime (30 seconds, for example) or more, the controller 22 isautomatically set at off-state.

The B button 46 b is also the push button switch, and is mainly used forinputting a trigger such as shooting and designating a position selectedby the controller 34. In a case that the B button 46 h is continued tobe pushed, it is possible to make movements and parameters of the playerobject constant. In a fixed case, the B button 46 h functions in thesame way as a normal B-button, and is used for canceling the action orthe command determined by the A-button 46 d.

Within the housing 44, an acceleration sensor 84 (FIG. 11) for detectingaccelerations in three-axis directions of X, Y and Z (that is, right andleft direction, up and down direction and forward and reward direction)shown in FIG. 2 is provided. Alternatively, as an acceleration sensor84, a two-axis acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration in any twodirections out of the right and left direction, up and down directionand forward and reward direction may be used depending on therestriction on a shape of the housing 44, a way of holding the firstcontroller 34, or the like. Under certain circumstances, one-axisacceleration sensor may be used.

On the front surface of the housing 44, a light incident opening 44 b isformed, and inside the housing 44, an imaged information arithmeticsection 50 is further provided. The imaged information arithmeticsection 50 is made tip of a camera for imaging infrared rays and anarithmetic operation portion for calculating coordinates of imagedobjects within an image, and captures an object scene including theabove-described markers 30 a and 30 b by the infrared rays to calculateposition coordinates of the markers 30 a and 30 b within the objectscene.

On the rear surface of the housing 44, the above-described connector 42is provided. The connector 42 is utilized for connecting other equipmentto the first controller 34. In this embodiment, the connector 42 isconnected with the connector 40 of the second controller 36 or theconnector 106 of the gyro sensor unit 100.

Moreover, on the rear surface of the housing 44, a pair of through holes48 a and 48 b is formed in such positions as to be symmetrically witheach other (X-axis direction) about the connector 42. The pair ofthrough holes 48 a and 48 b is for being inserted with hooks 112Fa and112Fb (FIG. 6(A)) for securing the gyro sensor unit 100 at the rearsurface of the housing 44. At the rear surface of the housing 44, athrough hole 48 c for attaching a strap 56 (FIG. 5) is also provided.

FIG. 3 is an illustrative view showing one example of an appearance ofthe Nunchaku or the second controller 36 itself. FIG. 3(A) is aperspective view of the second controller 36 as seeing it from aboverear, and FIG. 3(B) is a perspective view of the second controller 36 asseeing it from below front. In FIG. 3, the cable 38 of the secondcontroller 36 is omitted here.

The second controller 36 has a housing 52 formed by plastic molding, forexample. The housing 52 is formed into an approximately thin longelliptical shape in the forward and backward directions (Z-axisdirection) when viewed from plane, and the width of the right and leftdirection (X-axis direction) at the rear end is narrower than that ofthe front end. Furthermore, the housing 52 has a curved shape as a wholewhen viewed from a side, and downwardly curved from a horizontal portionat the front end to the rear end. The housing 52 has a size small enoughto be held by one hand of a child and an adult similar to the firstcontroller 34 as a whole, and has a longitudinal length (in the Z-axisdirection) slightly shorter than that of the housing 44 of the firstcontoller 34. Even with the second controller 36, the player can performa game operation by operating buttons and a stick, and by changing aposition and a direction of the controller itself.

At the front end of the top surface of the housing 52, an analogjoystick 54 a is provided. At the end of the housing 52, a front edgeslightly inclined backward is provided, and on the front edge areprovided a C button 54 b and a Z button 54 c vertically (Y-axisdirection in FIG. 3) arranged. The analog joystick 54 a and therespective buttons 54 b and 54 c are assigned appropriate functionsaccording to a game program to be executed by the game apparatus 12. Theanalog joystick 54 a and the respective buttons 54 b and 54 c providedto the second controller 36 may inclusively be denoted by means of thereference numeral 54.

Inside the housing 52 of the second controller 36, an accelerationsensor 86 (FIG. 11) is provided. As the acceleration sensor 86, anacceleration sensor similar to the acceleration sensor 84 in the firstcontroller 34 is applied. More specifically, a three-axis accelerationsensor is applied in this embodiment, and detects accelerations in eachof the three axis directions such as an up and down direction (Y-axialdirection shown), a right and left direction (X-axial direction shown),and a forward and backward direction (Z-axial direction shown) of thesecond controller 36. Accordingly, similar to the case of the firstcontroller 34, proper arithmetic process is performed on the detectedacceleration to thereby calculate a tilt and a rotation of the secondcontroller 36 and an attitude of the acceleration sensor 86 with respectto the direction of gravity. Furthermore, it is possible to calculate amotion applied to the first controller 34 by swinging, etc. similarly.

FIG. 4 shows one example of an appearance of the connector 40 of thesecond controller 36. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the connector 40as seeing it from below front. Here also, the cable 38 is omitted. Theconnector 40 has a housing 122 formed by a plastics molding, forexample. At the bottom surface of the housing 122, a hook 124 isprovided. The hook 124 is for intrinsically hanging and retaining a cordof the strap 56 attached to the first controller 34 when the connector40 is directly connected to the first controller 34 (of the connector42) as shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 shows one example of an appearance of the gyro sensor unit 100.FIG. 6(A) is a perspective view of the gyro sensor unit 100 as seeing itfrom above front, and FIG. 6(B) is a perspective view of the gyro sensorunit 100 as seeing it from rear back. The gyro sensor unit 100 has ahousing 110 formed by a plastics molding, for example. The housing 110has an appropriately rectangular parallelepiped shape, and the length is⅕ of the length of the housing 44 of the first controller 34, and thewidth and thickness are approximately the same as those of the housing44. The player can play a game operation by changing a position and adirection of the first controller 34 itself even if the first controller34 is attached with the gyro sensor unit 100.

On the front surface and the rear surface of the housing 110, theabove-described connectors 106 and 108 are provided, on the sidesurfaces of the housing 110, a pair of release buttons 112 a and 112 bare provided, and the bottom surface of the housing 110, a lock switch114 is provided. An approximately sphere concave portion 110 a isprovided from the end of the front surface of the housing 110 to thebottom surface such that the through hole 48 c for the strap 56 isexposed in a state that the first controller 34 is attached with thegyro sensor unit 100 (FIG. 8).

A pair of hooks 112Fa and 112Fb which are respectively associated withthe release buttons 112 a and 112 b are provided the front surface ofthe housing 110 at positions symmetrically with each other in ahorizontal direction (X-axis direction) about the connector 106. Whenthe connector 106 is connected to the connector 42 in order to attachthe gyro sensor unit 100 to the first controller 34, the pair of hooks112Fa and 112Fb are inserted to the pair of through holes 49 a and 48 b(FIG. 2(A)) at the rear surface of the housing 44, and the pawls of thehooks 112Fa and 112Fb are engaged with the inner wall of the housing 44.Thus, the gyro sensor unit 100 is fixed to the rear surface of the firstcontroller 34.

FIG. 8 shows the gyro sensor unit 100 thus attached to the firstcontroller 34. When the pair of release buttons 112 a and 112 b arepushed in this state, the engagement of the pawls are released to allowthe gyro sensor unit 100 to be detached from the first controller 34.

A lock switch 114 is a sliding switch for locking such the releasebuttons 112 a and 112 b. The release buttons 112 a and 112 b cannot bepushed (locked state) when the lock switch 114 is in a first position(toward the rear side, for example), and the release buttons 112 a and112 b can be pushed (released state) when the lock switch 114 is in asecond position (toward the front, for example). Within the housing 110,locking springs 118 a and 118 b (FIG. 7) are provided and constructed soas to be repulsed when the release button 112 a and 112 b are pushed,and so as to maintain the engaged state when the release button 112 aand 112 b are not pushed. Thus, in order to remove the gyro sensor unit1005 the user has to push the release buttons 112 a and 112 b aftersliding the lock switch 114 from the first position to the secondposition.

Since the gyro sensor unit 100 is attached to the rear surface of thefirst controller 34, a centrifugal force applied to the gyro sensor unit100 during the game is exclusively worked such that the gyro sensor unit100 is pressed against the first controller 34. Furthermore, the gyrosensor unit 100 is fixed to the rear surface of the first controller 34by the hooks 112Fa and 112Fb while the lock switch 114 is provided tothe release buttons 112 a and 112 b for releasing the hooks 112Fa and112Fb, and therefore, even during operating the game, it is possible tobring about a tightly secured state between the gyro sensor unit 100 andthe first controller 34.

On the rear surface of the housing 110, a concave portion 110 b capableof housing the connector cover 116 to be attached to the connector 108is provided on the periphery of the connector 108. The connector cover116 has a narrow thin (that is, can be bended) protrusion 116 aextending in a forward and backward (Z-axis direction) direction on theone end of the main surface. The end portion of the protrusion 11 ha isengaged with the housing 110, and the connector cover 116 is captivefrom the housing 110 in a state that it is removed from the connector108.

The connector cover 116 has a narrow thick (that is, is hard to bend)protrusion 116 b extending in a right and left direction (X-axisdirection) on the other end of the main surface. The thickness of theprotrusion 116 b (height of the Z-axis direction) is approximately thesame as the thickness (height of the Y-axis direction) of the hook 124(FIG. 4) provided to the connector 40 of the second controller 36. In acase that the second controller 36 is connected to the first controller34 via the gyro sensor unit 100, the main surface of the connector cover116 is made level to be engaged with the side surface of the hook 124 ofthe connector 40 as shown in FIG. 9. By thus incorporating the connectorcover 116 detached from the connector 108 into the connector 40, theconnector 40 is tightly secured to the gyro sensor unit 100 as well asis improved in operability and appearance.

FIG. 7 shows one example of a structure of the gyro sensor unit 100. Thegyro sensor unit 100 also has a gyro substrate 120 and a support member122 in addition to the above-described housing 110, connectors 106 and108, release buttons 112 a and 112 b, hooks 112Fa and 112Fb, lock switch114, connector cover 116 and locking springs 115 a and 118 b. The gyrosubstrate 120 is connected to each of the connectors 106 and 108 by asignal wire, and the support member 122 supports the gyro substrate 120and the connectors 106 and 108.

The gyro substrate 120 is provided with a gyro sensor 104. The gyrosensor 104 is made up of two chips including one-axis gyro sensor 104 aand two-axis gyro sensor 104 b. The gyro sensor 104 a is for detectingan angular velocity (angular velocity about the Y axis) relating to ayaw angle, and the gyro sensor 104 b is for detecting two angularvelocities (angular velocity about the Z axis and angular velocity aboutthe X axis) relating to a roll angle and a pitch angle. The gyro sensors104 a and 104 b are horizontally provided and arranged in parallel on atop surface 120 a of the gyro substrate 120.

Here, the arrangement of the gyro sensors 104 a and 1045 is notrestricted to that shown in FIG. 7. In another embodiment, the gyrosensor 104 a is horizontally provided on one of the top surface 120 aand the bottom surface 120 b of the gyro substrate 120, and the gyrosensor 104 b is horizontally provided on the other of the top surface120 a and the bottom surface 120 b of the gyro substrate 120 so as to beopposed to the gyro sensor 104 a with the gyro substrate 120therebetween. In still another embodiment, the gyro sensor 104 a isvertically provided on one of the top surface 120 a and the bottomsurface 1205 of the gyro substrate 120, and the gyro sensor 104 b ishorizontally provided on the other of the top surface 120 a and thebottom surface 1205 of the gyro substrate 120.

Furthermore, the gyro sensor 104 is not restricted to be made up of twochips, may be made up of three one-axis gyro sensors (three chips), ormay be made up of one three-axis gyro sensor (one chip). In either case,a position and a direction of each of the chips are decided so as toproperly detect the above-described three angular velocities. Inaddition, under certain circumstances, the gyro sensor 104 may be madeup of one two-axis gyro sensor, or may be mad up of one or two one-axisgyro sensor.

It should be noted that the shapes of the first controller 34 shown inFIG. 2, the second controller 36 shown in FIG. 3 and the gyro sensorunit 100 shown in FIG. 6, and the shape, the number and the settingposition of the button (switch or stick, etc.) are merely one example,and may be changed to another shape, number and setting position, etc.as necessary.

Here, the sensor is a gyro sensor (angular velocity sensor) in apreferred embodiment, but may be other motion sensors, such as anacceleration sensor, a velocity sensor, a displacement sensor, arotation angle sensor, etc. Besides the motion sensors, there are aslant sensor, an image sensor, an optical sensor, a pressure sensor, amagnetic sensor, a temperature sensor, etc., and in a case that eithersensor is added, an operation by utilizing an object to be detected bythe sensor is made possible. In a case that either sensor is utilized,the operating device can be added with a sensor while utilizing anotherdevice conventionally connected to the operating device as it is.

In addition, the power source of the controller 14 is applied by abattery (not illustrated) which is replaceably accommodated in the firstcontroller 34. The power is supplied to the second controller 36 via theconnector 40 and the cable 38. If the gyro sensor unit 100 is connectedto the first controller 34, the power is supplied to the gyro sensorunit 100 via the connectors 42 and 106. Alternatively, if the secondcontroller 36 is connected to the gyro sensor unit 100, a part of thepower supplied from the first controller 34 to the gyro sensor unit 100is also applied to the second controller 36 via the connector 108, theconnector 40 and the cable 38.

FIG. 10 shows an electric configuration of the game system 10. Althoughillustration is omitted, respective components within the housing 14 aremounted on the printed-circuit board. As shown in FIG. 10, the gameapparatus 12 is provided with a CPU 60 functioning as a game processor.Furthermore, the CPU 60 is also connected with a system LSI 162. Thesystem LSI 162 is connected with an external main memory 66, a ROM/RTC68, a disk drive 74 and an AV IC 76.

The external main memory 66 is utilized as a work area and a buffer areaof the CPU 60 by storing programs such as a game program, etc. andvarious data. The ROM/RTC 68, which is a so-called boot ROM, isincorporated with a program for activating the game apparatus 12, and isprovided with a time circuit for counting a time. The disk drive 74reads a program, image data, sound data, etc. from the optical disk 22,and writes them in an internal main memory 62 e described later or theexternal main memory 66 under the control of the CPU 60.

The system LSI 62 is provided with an input-output processor 62 a, a GPU(Graphics Processor Unit) 62 b, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) 62 c, aVRAM 62 d and the internal main memory 62 e, and these are connectedwith one another by internal buses although illustration is omitted.Transmission and reception and download of data are described later.

The CPU 62 b is made up of a part of a drawing means, and receives agraphics command (construction command) from the CPU 60 to generate gameimage data according to the command. Additionally, the CPU 60 applies animage generating program required for generating game image data to theCPU 62 b in addition to the graphics command.

Although illustration is omitted, the CPU 62 b is connected with theSRAM 62 d as described above. The CPU 625 accesses the VRAM 62 d toacquire data (image data: data such as polygon data, texture data, etc.)required to execute the construction command. Here, the CPU 60 writesimage data required for drawing to the VRAM 62 d via the GPU 62 b. TheCPU 625 accesses the VRAM 62 d to produce game image data for drawing.

In this embodiment, a case that the GPU 625 generates game image data isexplained, but in a case of executing an arbitrary application exceptfor the game application, the GPU 62 b generates image data as to thearbitrary application.

Furthermore, the DSP 62 c functions as an audio processor, and generatesaudio data corresponding to a sound, a voice, music, or the like to beoutput from the speaker 28 by means of the sound data and the sound wave(tone) data stored in the internal main memory 62 e and the externalmain memory 66.

The game image data and audio data which are generated as describedabove are read by the AV IC 76, and output to the monitor 26 and thespeaker 28 via the AV connector 78. Accordingly, a game screen isdisplayed on the monitor 26, and a sound (music) necessary for the gameis output from the speaker 28.

Furthermore, the input-output processor 62 a is connected with a flashmemory 64, a wireless communication module 70 and a wireless controllermodule 72, and is also connected with an expanding connector 80 and aconnector for external memory card 82. The wireless communication module70 is connected with an antenna 70 a, and the wireless controller module72 is connected with an antenna 72 a.

Although illustration is omitted, the input-output processor 62 a cancommunicate with other game apparatuses and various servers to beconnected to a network (not shown) via the wireless communication module70. It should be noted that it is possible to directly communicate withanother game apparatus without going through the network. Theinput-output processor 62 a periodically accesses the flash memory 64 todetect the presence or absence of data (referred to as data to betransmitted) being required to be transmitted to a network, andtransmits it to the network via the wireless communication module 70 andthe antenna 70 a in a case that data to be transmitted is present.Furthermore, the input-output processor 62 a receives data (referred toas received data) transmitted from another game apparatuses via thenetwork, the antenna 70 a and the wireless communication module 70, andstores the received data in the flash memory 64. In a case that thereceived data does not satisfy a constant condition, the received datais abandoned as it is. In addition, the input-output processor 62 areceives data (download data) downloaded from the download server viathe network, the antenna 70 a and the wireless communication module 70,and stores the download data in the flash memory 64.

Furthermore, the input-output processor 62 a receives input datatransmitted from the controller 34 via the antenna 72 a and the wirelesscontroller module 72, and (temporarily) stores it in the buffer area ofthe internal main memory 62 e or the external main memory 66. The inputdata is erased from the buffer area after being utilized in theprocessing by the CPU 60 (game processing, for example).

In this embodiment, as described above, the wireless controller module72 makes communications with the controller 34 in accordance withBluetooth standards. This makes it possible for the game apparatus 12 tonot only fetch data from the controller 34 but also to transmit apredetermined command to the controller 34 to thereby control a motionof the controller 34 from the game apparatus 12.

In addition, the input-output processor 62 a is connected with theexpanding connector 80 and the connector for external memory card 82.The expanding connector 80 is a connector for interfaces, such as USB,SCSI, etc., and can be connected with medium such as an external storageand peripheral devices such as another controller different form thecontroller 34. Furthermore, the expanding connector 80 is connected witha cable LAN adaptor, and can utilize the cable LAN in place of thewireless communication module 70. The connector for external memory card82 can be connected with an external storage like a memory card. Thus,the input-output processor 62 a, for example, accesses the externalstorage via the expanding connector 80 and the connector for externalmemory card 82 to store and read the data.

Although a detailed description is omitted, when the power button isturned on, the system LSI 162 is set in a mode of a normal energizedstate in which the respective components of the game apparatus 12 aresupplied with power through an AC adapter not shown (referred to as“normal mode”). On the other hand, when the power button is turned off,the system LSI 162 is set to a mode in which a part of the components ofthe game apparatus 12 is supplied with power, and the power consumptionis reduced to minimum (hereinafter referred to as “standby mode”).

In this embodiment, in a case that the standby mode is set, the systemLSI 62 issues an instruction to stop supplying the power to thecomponents except for the input-output processor 62 a, the flash memory64, the external main memory 66, the ROM/RTC 68, the radio communicationmodule 70, and the radio controller module 72. Accordingly, in thisembodiment, the CPU 60 never executes an application in the stand-bymode.

Although the system LSI 62 is supplied with power even in the standbymode, supply of clocks to the GPU 62 b, the DSP 62 c and the VRAM 62 dare stopped so as not to be driven, realizing reduction in powerconsumption.

Although illustration is omitted, inside the housing 14 of the gameapparatus 12, a fan is provided for excluding heat of the IC, such asthe CPU 60, the system LSI 62, etc. to outside. In the standby mode, thefan is also stopped.

However, in a case that the standby mode is not desired, when the powerbutton is turned off, by making the standby mode unusable, the powersupply to all the circuit components are completely stopped.

Furthermore, switching between the normal mode and the standby mode canbe performed by turning on and off the power switch 80 i of thecontroller 34 by remote control. If the remote control is not performed,setting is made such that the power supply to the radio controllermodule 72 a is not performed in the standby mode.

The reset button is also connected to the system LSI 62. When the resetbutton is pushed, the system LSI 62 restarts the activation program ofthe game apparatus 12. The eject button is connected to the disk drive74. When the eject button 74 is pushed, the optical disk 22 is removedfrom the disk drive 74.

FIG. 11 shows one example of an electric configuration of the controller14 as a whole when the first controller 34 and the second controller 36are connected via the gyro sensor unit 100.

The first controller 34 incorporates a communication unit 88, and thecommunication unit 88 is connected with the operating portion 46, theimaged information arithmetic section 50, the acceleration sensor 84,and the connector 42. The operating portion 46 indicates theabove-described operation buttons or operation switches 46 a-46 i. Whenthe operating portion 46 is operated, data indicating the operation isapplied to the communication unit 88. From the imaged informationarithmetic section 50, data indicating the position coordinates of themarkers 30 a and 30 b are output to the communication unit 88.

In addition, as described above, the controller 34 is provided with theimaged information arithmetic section 50. The imaged informationarithmetic section 50 is constituted by an infrared filter 50 a, a lens50 b, an imager 50 c and an image processing circuit 50 d. The infraredfilter 50 a passes only infrared rays from the light incident from thelight incident opening ahead of the first controller 34. As describedabove, the markers 30 a and 30 b placed near (around) the display screenof the monitor 26 are infrared LEDs for outputting infrared lights aheadof the monitor 26. Accordingly, by providing the infrared filter 50 a,it is possible to image the image of the markers 30 a and 30 b moreaccurately. The lens 50 b condenses the infrared rays passing thoroughthe infrared filter 50 a to emit them to the imager 50 c. The imager 50c is a solid imager, such as a CMOS sensor and a CCD sensor, forexample, and images the infrared rays condensed by the lens 50 b.Accordingly, the imager 50 c images only the infrared rays passingthrough the infrared filter 50 a to generate image data. Hereafter, theimage imaged by the imager 50 c is called an “imaged image”. The imagedata generated by the imager 50 c is processed by the image processingcircuit 50 d. The image processing circuit 50 d calculates positions ofobjects to be imaged (markers 30 a and 30 b) within the imaged image,and outputs marker coordinates data indicating the positions to theprocessor 70 as imaged data (marker coordinate data described below) foreach four predetermined time (one frame, for example). It should benoted that a description of the image processing circuit 50 d is madelater.

FIG. 12 is an illustrative view summarizing a state when a player playsa game by utilizing the controller 34. It should be noted that the sameis true for a case that another application is executed or a DVD isreproduced as well as a game playing. As shown in FIG. 12, when playingthe game by means of the controller 34 in the video game system 10, theplayer holds the controller 34 with one hand. Strictly speaking, theplayer holds the controller 34 in a state that the front end surface(the side of the incident light opening 44 b of the light imaged by theimaged information arithmetic section 50) of the controller 34 isoriented to the markers 30 a and 30 b. Here, as can be understood fromFIG. 1, the markers 30 a and 30 b are placed in parallel with thehorizontal direction of the screen of the monitor 26. In this state, theplayer performs a game operation by changing a position on the screenindicated by the controller 34, and changing a distance between thecontroller 34 and each of the markers 30 a and 30 b.

Although it is unclear in FIG. 12, the same is true for a case that theabove-described gyro sensor unit 100 is connected to the controller 34.

FIG. 13 is a view explaining viewing angles between the respectivemarkers 30 a and 30 b, and the first controller 34. As shown in FIG. 13,each of the markers 30 a and 30 b emits infrared ray within a range of aviewing angle θ1. Also, the imager 50 c of the imaged informationarithmetic section 50 can receive incident light within the range of theviewing angle θ2 taking the line of sight of the first controller 34 asa center. For example, the viewing angle θ1 of each of the markers 30 aand 30 b is 34° (half-value angle) while the viewing angle θ2 of theimager 50 c is 42°. The player holds the first controller 34 such thatthe imager 50 c is directed and positioned so as to receive the infraredrays from the markers 30 a and 30 b. More specifically, the player holdsthe first controller 34 such that at least one of the markers 30 a and30 b exists in the viewing angle θ2 of the imager 50 c, and the firstcontroller 34 exists in at least one of the viewing angles θ1 of themarker 30 a or 30 b. In this state, the first controller 34 can detectat least one of the markers 30 a and 30 b. The player can perform a gameoperation by changing the position and the attitude of the firstcontroller 34 in the range satisfying the state.

If the position and the attitude of the first controller 34 are out ofthe range, the game operation based on the position and the attitude ofthe first controller 34 cannot be performed. Hereafter, theabove-described range is called an “operable range”.

If the first controller 34 is held within the operable range, an imageof each of the markers 30 a and 30 b is imaged by the imaged informationarithmetic section 50. That is, the imaged image obtained by the imager50 c includes an image (object image) of each of the markers 30 a and 30b as an object to be imaged. FIG. 14 is a view showing one example ofthe imaged image including an object image. The image processing circuit50 d calculates coordinates (marker coordinates) indicative of theposition of each of the markers 30 a and 30 b in the imaged image byutilizing the image data of the imaged image including the objectimages.

Since the object images appear as a high-intensity part in the imagedata of the imaged image, the image processing circuit 50 d firstdetects the high-intensity part as a candidate of the object image.Next, the image processing circuit 50 d determines whether or not thehigh-intensity part is an object image on the basis of the size of thedetected high-intensity part. The imaged image may include images otherthan the object image due to sunlight through a window and light of afluorescent lamp in the room as well as the two object images 30 a′ and30 b′ corresponding to the two markers 30 a, 30 b as object images. Thedetermination processing whether or not the high-intensity parts are theobject images is executed for discriminating the images 30 a′ and 30 b′as object images from other than these, and accurately detecting theobject images. More specifically, in the determination process, it isdetermined whether or not each of the detected high-intensity parts iswithin the size of the preset predetermined range. Then, if thehigh-intensity part is within the size of the predetermined range, it isdetermined that the high-intensity part represents the object image. Onthe contrary, if the high-intensity part is not within the size of thepredetermined range, it is determined that the high-intensity partrepresents the images other than the object image.

In addition, as to the high-intensity part which is determined torepresent the object image as a result of the above-describeddetermination processing, the image processing circuit 50 d calculatesthe position of the high-intensity part. More specifically, thebarycenter position of the high-intensity part is calculated. Here, thecoordinates of the barycenter position is called a “marker coordinates”.Also, the barycenter position can be calculated with more detailed scalethan the resolution of the imager 50 c. Now, the resolution of theimaged image imaged by the imager 50 c shall be 126×96, and thebarycenter position shall be calculated with the scale of 1024×768. Thatis, the marker coordinates is represented by the integer from (0, 0) to(1024, 768).

Additionally, the positions in the imaged image are represented in acoordinate system (X-Y coordinate system of the imaged image) by takingthe upper left of the imaged image as an original point O, the downwarddirection as the Y-axis positive direction, and the right direction asthe X-axis positive direction.

Furthermore, in a case that the object images are accurately detected,two high-intensity parts are determined as object images by thedetermination processing, and therefore, it is possible to calculate thetwo marker coordinates. The image processing circuit 50 d outputs dataindicative of the calculated two marker coordinates. The data (markercoordinate data) of the output marker coordinates is included in theinput data by the processor 70 as described above, and transmitted tothe game apparatus 12.

When detecting the marker coordinate data from the received controllerdata, the game apparatus 12 (CPU 60) can calculate instruction positions(instruction coordinates) of the first controller 34 on the screen ofthe monitor 26 and the distance from the first controller 34 to each ofthe markers 30 a and 30 b on the basis of the marker coordinate data.More specifically, from the midpoint position of the two markercoordinates, the position to which the controller 34 faces, that is, theinstructed position is calculated. Furthermore, the distance between theobject images in the imaged image is changed depending on the distancebetween the controller 34 and the markers 30 a and 30 b, and therefore,by calculating the distance between the two marker coordinates, the gameapparatus 12 can grasp the distance between the controller 34 and themarkers 330 a and 30 b.

Returning to FIG. 11, the data indicating the acceleration detected bythe acceleration sensor 84 is also output to the communication unit 88.The acceleration sensor 84 has a sampling period being in the order of200 flames/seconds at the maximum, for example.

The connector 42 is connected with the connector 106 of the gyro sensorunit. The gyro sensor unit 100 includes the microcomputer 102 and thegyro sensor 104 inside thereof. The gyro sensor 104 shows theabove-described gyro sensors 104 a and 104 b, and has a sapling periodsimilar to the acceleration sensor 84, for example. The microcomputer102 outputs to the communication unit 88 data indicating the angularvelocity detected by the gyro sensor 104 via the connector 106 and theconnector 42.

The connector 108 of the gyro sensor unit 100 is connected with theconnector 40 of the cable 38 extending from the second controller 36.The connector 40 is connected with an operating portion 54 and anacceleration sensor 86 of the second controller 36. The operatingportion 54 shows the above-described stick 54 a and operation buttons 54b, 54 c. When the operating portion 54 is operated, data indicating theoperation is applied to the microcomputer 102 of the gyro sensor unit100 via the cable 38, the connector 40 and the connector 108. Themicrocomputer 102 outputs the data to the communication unit 88 via theconnector 106 and the connector 42. The acceleration sensor 86 also hasa sampling period similar to the acceleration sensor 84, and the dataindicating the acceleration thus detected is also output to thecommunication unit 88 by the microcomputer 102.

Here, each output to the above-described communication unit 88 isexecuted at a cycle of 1/200 seconds. Accordingly, during arbitrary1/200 seconds, operation data from the operating portion 46, positioncoordinate data from the imaged information arithmetic section 50,acceleration data from the acceleration sensor 84, angular velocity datafrom the gyro sensor 104, operation data from the operating portion 54,and acceleration data from the acceleration sensor 86 are output to thecommunication unit 88 once for each of them.

FIG. 15 shows an important part of the gyro sensor unit 100 of theentire configuration shown in FIG. 11. Each of the above-describedconnector 42, connector 106, connector 108 and connector 40 is aconnector of six pins, for example, in which an Attach pin forcontrolling a variable “Attach” indicating a connected state between theconnectors is included. The Attach is changed between “Low” indicatingthat the connectors are disconnected, and “High” indicating that theconnectors are connected. In what follows, the Attach between theconnector 42 and the connector 106, that is, between the firstcontroller 34 and the gyro sensor unit 100 is called “Attach1”, and theAttach between the connector 108 and the connector 40, that is, the gyrosensor unit 100 and the second controller 36 is called “Attach2”.

Even if the first controller 34 is attached with the gyro sensor unit100, if the application is a gyro-incompatible type, and the gyro sensorunit 100 is not connected with the second controller 36, the Attach1 iscon-trolled to be “Low” such that the gyro sensor unit 100 is not viewedfrom the gyro-incompatible application by the microcomputer 102 of thegyro sensor unit 100 (standby mode: see FIG. 19). In the standby mode, apower supply to the gyro sensor 104 is stopped to make the gyro functioninactive. The microcomputer 102 exclusively performs a mode selectionbased on the Attach2 and a power source management based on aninstruction from the gyro-compatible application.

The other two pins out of the aforementioned six pins are assigned I2Cbuses, and the gyro sensor unit 100 further includes a bus switch SW forconnecting/isolating the I2C bus on the side of the first controller 34and the I2C bus on the side of the second controller 36. The bus switchSW is turned on by the microcomputer 102 when the gyro-incompatibleapplication is executed in a state that the second controller 36 isconnected to the first controller 34 via the gyro sensor unit 100.Thereafter, the data from the second controller 36 is output to thecommunication unit 88 through the I2C bus without passing through themicrocomputer 102 (bypass mode: see FIG. 19). Thus, the microcomputer102 merely performs a mode selection and a power source managementsimilar to the standby mode, which reduces electric power consumption.Furthermore, the gyro-incompatible application call be executed evenwith the gyro sensor unit 100 attached. When the bus switch SW is turnedoff the bus is connected to the microcomputer 102, and the data to beoutput to the first controller 34 is controlled by the microcomputer102.

The bus switch SW is turned on even in the standby mode. This makes itpossible for the gyro-compatible type application to confirm whether ornot the first controller 34 is attached with the gyro sensor unit 100with reference to a special address of the I2C bus even if the Attach1is controlled to “Low” as described above.

It should be noted that the gyro sensor unit 100 is prepared with fourmodes including a “gyro” mode and a “gyro & second controller” mode inaddition to the above-described “standby” and “bypass” modes. In theformer two modes, the bus switch SW is turned off.

The microcomputer 102 of the gyro sensor unit 100 includes two kinds ofA/D conversion circuits 102 a and 102 b, and an angular velocity signalabout the three axes output from the gyro sensor 104 is applied to eachof the A/D conversion circuits 102 a and 102 b. In the A/D conversioncircuit 102 a, A/D converting processing of a high angular velocity modefor regarding all the detection range by the gyro sensor 104 (±360°/sec)as a target, for example, is executed, and in the A/D conversioncircuits 102 b, A/D converting processing of a low angular velocity modefor regarding a part of the detection range by the gyro sensor 104(±90°/sec, for example) as a target is executed. The microcomputer 102outputs any one of the two kinds of the results of the A/Dtransformation as angular velocity data.

More specifically, when two kinds of angular velocity data correspondingto at a certain time are output from the A/D conversion circuits 101 aand 102 k, the microcomputer 102 first determines whether or not withrespect to the angular velocity data of the low angular velocity mode,the value A falls within the range of a first threshold value Th1 to asecond threshold value Thy (>Th1), that is, a condition “Th1≦A≦Th2” issatisfied, for each of the axis, that is, the yaw axis, the roll axisand the pitch axis. Next, on the basis of these three determinationresults, any one of the low angular velocity mode and the high angularvelocity mode is selected. For example, with respect to each of thethree determination results, if “YES”, the low angular velocity mode isselected for each axis, and if “NO”, the high angular velocity mode isselected for each axis. Then, the angular velocity data according to themode selected for each axis is output along with the mode informationindicating the selected mode. That is, by changing accuracy of the datadepending on the angular velocity, it is possible to output data withhigh accuracy at low speeds even if the data amount is equal.

FIG. 16 shows a data format handled by the gyro sensor unit 100. FIG.16(A) shows a data format for gyro sensor unit 100, and FIG. 16(B) showsa data format for second controller 36. The data for gyro sensor unit100 includes yaw angular velocity data, roll angular velocity data andpitch angular velocity data, and yaw angular velocity mode information,roll angular velocity mode information and pitch angular velocity modeinformation, and second controller connection information andgyro/second controller identifying information.

Here, as shown in FIG. 17, the rotation about the y-axis is representedby a yaw angle, the rotation about x-axis is represented by a pitchangle, and the rotation about z-axis is represented by a roll angle.

The yaw angular velocity data, the roll angular velocity data and thepitch angular velocity data, each of which is 14 bits data, for example,are respectively obtained, through an A/D conversion, from a yaw angularvelocity signal, a roll angular velocity signal and a pitch angularvelocity signal which are output from the gyro sensor 104. Each of theyaw angular velocity mode information, the roll angular velocity modeinformation and the pitch angular velocity mode information isinformation of one bit indicating a corresponding mode of each of theangular velocity data, and changed between “0” corresponding to the highangular velocity mode and “1” corresponding to the low angular velocitymode.

The second controller connection information) is information of one bitto indicate whether or not the second controller 36 is connected to theconnector 108, and is changed between “0” indicating a non-connectionand “1” indicating a connection. The gyro/second controller identifyinginformation is information of one bit to identify whether the data isdata output from the gyro sensor unit 100 or the data output from thesecond controller 36, and is changed between “1” indicating that this isfrom the gyro sensor unit 100 and “0” indicating that this is from thesecond controller 36.

On the other hand, the data for second controller 36 includes X stickoperation data and Z stick operation data respectively indicating astick operation in the right and left direction (N-axis direction) and astick operation in the forward and reward direction (Z-axis direction),and X acceleration data, Y acceleration data and Z acceleration datarespectively indicating an acceleration in the X-axis direction, anacceleration in the Y-axis direction and an acceleration in the Z-axisdirection, and button operation data, second controller connectioninformation, and gyro/second controller identifying information.

The gyro sensor unit 100 alternately outputs data for gyro according tothe format shown in FIG. 16(A) and data for second controller accordingto the format shown in FIG. 16(B) to the communication unit 88 at acycle of 1/200 seconds, for example. Accordingly, the data in the one ofthe format is consequently output at a cycle of 1/100 seconds, but thisis much shorter than the cycle of 1/60 seconds as a general processingperiod for game processing, etc., and therefore, even if the data isalternately output, both of the data can be used for one frame at thesame time in the game processing.

The communication unit 88 includes a microcomputer (micon) 90, a memory92, a wireless module 94, and am antenna 96. The micon 90 transmits theobtained data to the game apparatus 12 and receives data from the gameapparatus 12 by controlling the wireless module 94 while using thememory 92 as a memory area (working area and buffer area) in processing.

The data output to the communication unit 88 from the gyro sensor unit100 is temporarily stored in the memory 92 through the microcomputer 90.The data output to the communication unit 88 from the operating portion46, the imaged information arithmetic section 50 and the accelerationsensor 84 within the first controller 34 are also temporarily stored inthe memory 92. The microcomputer 90 outputs data stored in the memory 92to the wireless module 94 as controller data when a transmission timingto the game apparatus 12 has come. The controller data includes the datafor first controller in addition to the data for gyro and/or the datafor second controller shown in FIG. 16(A) and FIG. 16(B). The data forfirst controller includes X acceleration data, Y acceleration data and Zacceleration data based on an output from the acceleration sensor 84,position coordinate data based on an output from the imaged informationarithmetic section 50, and button operation data (key data) based on anoutput from the operating portion or the input means 46.

The wireless module 94 modulates a carrier at a predetermined frequencyby the controller data, and emits its weak radio wave signal from theantenna 96 by using a short-range wireless communication technique, suchas Bluetooth (trademarks). Namely, the controller data is modulated tothe weak radio wave signal by the wireless module 96 and transmittedfrom the first controller 34. The weak radio wave signal is received bythe wireless controller module 72 of the game apparatus 12. The weakradio wave thus received is subjected to demodulating and decodingprocessing, so that the game apparatus 12 can obtain the controllerdata. The CPU 60 of the game apparatus 12 performs the game processingon the basis of the controller data obtained from the controller 14.Here, the wireless communication between the first controller 34 and thegame apparatus 12 may be executed according to another standard, such asa wireless LAN, etc.

In this game system 10, a user can make an input to an application likea game, or the like by moving the controller 14 itself other than abutton operation. In playing the game, for example, the user holds thefirst controller 34 (specifically, holding portion 44 a of the housing44: FIG. 2) with the Tight hand and the second controller 36 with theleft hand as shown in FIG. 18. As described above, the first controller34 is incorporated with the acceleration sensor 84 for detectingaccelerations in the three-axis directions, and the second controller 36is also incorporated with the similar acceleration sensor 86. When thefirst controller 34 and the second controller 36 are moved by theplayer, acceleration values in the three-axis directions indicating themotions of the respective controllers are detected by the accelerationsensor 84 and the acceleration sensor 86. In a case that the gyro sensorunit 100 is attached to the first controller 34, angular velocity valuesabout the three-axes indicating the motion of the first controller 34itself is further detected.

These detected values are transmitted to the game apparatus 12 in a formof the aforementioned controller data. In the game apparatus 12 (FIG.10), the controller data from the controller 14 is received by theinput-output processor 62 a via the antenna 72 a and the wirelesscontroller module 72, and the received controller data is written to thebuffer area of the internal main memory 62 e or the external main memory66. The CPU 60 reads the controller data stored in the buffer area ofthe internal main memory 62 e or the external main memory 66, andrestores the detected value, that is, the values of the accelerationand/or the angular velocity detected by the controller 14 from thecontroller data.

Here, the angular velocity data has two modes of the high angularvelocity mode and the low angular velocity mode, and therefore, the twokinds of angular velocity restoring algorithms corresponding to the twomodes are prep ed. In restoring the angular velocity value from theangular velocity data, the angular velocity restoring algorithmcorresponding to the mode of the angular velocity data is selected onthe basis of the angular velocity mode information.

The CPU 60 may execute processing for calculating a velocity of thecontroller 14 from the restored acceleration in parallel with such arestoring processing. In parallel therewith, a travel distance or aposition of the controller 14 can be evaluated from the calculatedvelocity. On the other hand, from the restored angular velocity, arotation angle of the controller 14 is evaluated. Here, the initialvalue (constant of integration) when the accelerations are accumulatedto calculate the velocity, and the angular velocities are accumulated tocalculate the rotation angle can be calculated from the positioncoordinate data from the imaged information arithmetic section 50, forexample. The position coordinate data can also be used for correctingthe errors accumulated due to the integration.

The game processing is executed on the basis of the variables, such asthe acceleration, the velocity, the travel distance, the angularvelocity, the rotation angle which are thus evaluated, etc. Accordingly,all of the processing described above need not to be executed, and thevariables necessary for the game processing may be calculated asrequired. It should be noted that the angular velocity and the rotationangle can also be calculated from the acceleration in principle, butthis requires a complex routine for the game program, which also imposesa heavy processing load on the CPU 60. By utilizing the gyro sensor unit100, a development of the program is made easy, and the processing loadon the CPU 60 is reduced.

By the way, some games may be a game for single controller of utilizingonly the first controller 34 and other games may be a game for twocontrollers of utilizing the first controller 34 and the secondcontroller 36, and the respective games are classified into any one ofthe gyro-compatible type and the gyro-incompatible type. The firstcontroller 34 being a main controller can be used for playing all thegames. Furthermore, the second controller 36 being an expandingcontroller is connected to the first controller 34 via the gyro sensorunit 100 or directly when the game for two controllers is played, and isremoved in general when the game for single controller is played.

On the other hand, the gyro sensor unit 100 being an expanding sensor oran expanding controller is not required when the gyro-incompatible gameis played, but it is not required to take the trouble to be removed.Thus, the gyro sensor unit 100 remains to be attached to the firstcontroller 34, and dealt as a single unit with the first controller 34,in general. The second controller 36 is detachable similar to a casethat the gyro sensor unit 100 is not attached except that the connectiondestination of the connector 40 is changed from the connector 42 to theconnector 108.

FIG. 19 shows a table in which a control by the microcomputer 102 of thegyro sensor unit 100 is described for each mode. The mode prepared forthe gyro sensor unit 100 is four kinds of the aforementioned “standby”,“bypass”, “gyro” and “gyro and second controller”, and the target to becontrolled by the microcomputer 102 covers six items of “gyro function”,“gyro power source”, “bus switch”, “expanding connector”, “Attach1” and“I2C address”.

The gyro function is in a stopped state (No Active) in each of thestandby mode and the bypass mode, but is in a started-up state (Active)in each of the gyro mode and the gyro and second controller mode. Apower supply to the gyro power source, that is, the gyro sensor 104 isstopped (OFF) in each of the standby mode and the bypass mode, andexecuted (ON) in each of the gyro mode and the gyro and secondcontroller mode. The bus switch SW is connected (Connect) in each of thestandby mode and the bypass mode, and isolated (Disconnect) in each ofthe gyro mode and the gyro and second controller mode.

The expanding connector, that is, the connector 108 is in a started-upstate in each of the bypass mode and the gyro and second controllermode, and in a stopped state in each of the standby mode and the gyromode. The Attach1 is controlled to “Low” indicating an unconnected statein the standby mode, and to “High” indicating a connected state in eachof the bypass mode, the gyro mode and the gyro and second controllermode. In relation to the I2C address, a special address is noted only ineach of the standby mode and the bypass mode.

The mode switching is performed shown in a manner in FIG. 20. FIG. 20(A)shows switching processing in a case that the application isgyro-compatible, and FIG. 20(B) shows switching processing in a casethat the application is gyro-incompatible. In common to FIG. 20(A) andFIG. 20(B), that is, irrespective of whether the gyro-compatibleapplication or the gyro-incompatible application, the gyro sensor unit100 starts up in response to the gyro sensor unit 100 itself beingconnected to the first controller 34, and enters in a standby mode beingan initial mode. Here, when the second controller 36 is connected to thegyro sensor unit 100, the standby mode shifts to the bypass mode andwhen the second controller 36 is then removed therefrom, the bypass modeis restored to the standby mode.

Here, the gyro-compatible application issues a call and a reset to thegyro sensor unit 100 in order to fetch angular velocity data asrequired. As described above, in this embodiment, it is possible tocontrol the controller from the game machine by the communication, andtherefore, by the application, it is possible to control the gyro sensorunit 100. Thus, as shown in FIG. 19(A), when receiving a call from theapplication in the standby mode, the gyro sensor unit 100 shifts to thegyro mode, and when receiving a reset from the application in the gyromode, the gyro sensor unit 100 is restored to the standby mode.Furthermore, the gyro sensor unit 100 shifts to the gyro and secondcontroller mode when being connected with the second controller 36 inthe gyro mode, and is restored to the gyro mode when being disconnectedwith the second controller 36 in the gyro and second controller mode.The gyro sensor unit 100 further shifts to the bypass mode whenreceiving a reset from the application in the gyro and second controllermode, and is restored to the gyro and second controller mode whenreceiving a call from the application in the bypass mode.

On the other hand, the gyro-incompatible application does not have afunction of performing a call and a reset with respect to the gyrosensor unit 100. Thus, when the gyro-incompatible application isexecuted, the mode of the gyro sensor unit 100 is merely switchedbetween the standby mode and the bypass mode as shown in FIG. 20(B).

The mode switching of the gyro sensor unit 100 is implemented by such amicrocomputer 102 referring to the table shown in FIG. 19, but thedetailed description thereof is omitted.

One example of a virtual game utilizing the game system 10 is describedwith reference to the drawings. Explanation is made on the outline ofthe game. FIG. 21 is an illustrative view showing a manner in which aplayer plays the game as a first embodiment. The first embodiment is agame in which the player operates a personal watercraft within the gamescreen by moving the first controller 34 and the second controller 36.As shown in FIG. 21, the player holds the first controller 34 and thesecond controller 36 in face-to-face relationships as if the bothcontrollers are one handle. Then, after the personal watercraft game isstarted, the two controllers, which are aligned side by side, are tiltedlike a handle of an actual personal watercraft. Similar to the actualpersonal watercraft, when the two controllers are tilted toward a rolldirection from the player, the body of the watercraft is leaned, and themoving direction can be turned from side to side. In a case that theplayer tilts both of the controllers to the left as shown in FIG. 21, apersonal watercraft (and a player object being in one body with thepersonal watercraft) PO within the game space turns to the left whileleaning its orientation as shown in FIG. 22( a). Furthermore, if theplayer tilts both of the controllers in the pitch direction, theorientation of the body can be leaned back and forth. For example, in acase that the player tilts both of the controllers upward, the personalwatercraft PO takes an orientation such that the front part of the bodyis floated up within the game space as shown in FIG. 22( b). Here, FIG.22( b) shows the personal watercraft PO within the game space from aside, and the actual game screen is a screen viewing the personalwatercraft PO from behind as shown in FIG. 22( a).

Furthermore, assuming that the B button 46 h is an accelerator button,while the B button 46G is pressed, the personal watercraft PC can goahead, for example. Accordingly, it is possible to perform anaccelerating operation in a manner the same as an accelerator providedto the handle of an actual personal watercraft.

However, with respect to the handle of a general motorbike, although nota personal watercraft, acceleration is made by twisting the handlegrasped with the right hand in the pitch direction, and in the game ofthis embodiment also, the acceleration can be made by a twist of theright hand. More specifically, if the first controller 34 is rotatedabout the z-axis, the personal watercraft PO within the game isaccelerated. That is, by twisting the right hand as does by theaccelerator of the real motorbike, it is possible to produceacceleration. In this embodiment, the accelerator operation takes anoperation by the above-described B button 46 h as a base, and allows atemporary acceleration over the upper limit to the velocity of thebutton operation by adding a twist.

That is, it is possible for the player to perform an intuitive handleoperation and an accelerator operation close to the actual personalwatercraft. It is also possible to accelerate the personal watercraft POwith an operation close to an accelerator operation of the realmotorbike. The player can control the velocity with the button withoutcontinuously twisting the controller for acceleration, and call speed upover the normal running by adding a twist at a timing when the playerwants to accelerate, capable of making a load on the player less thanwhen the player constantly twists the handle.

Accordingly, in a case that a more real operation is given priority inanother embodiment, such as a general motorbike game, etc. except forthe personal watercraft, the strength of the accelerator may be decidedonly from the attitude of the first controller 34.

In addition, in the present embodiment, when the first controller 34 isrotated about a yaw direction of the player (about the y-axis of thefirst controller, or about the x-axis direction depending oncircumstances), it is possible to make a performance such that thepersonal watercraft PO is spun horizontally as shown in FIG. 22( c). Ata time of this operation, the first controller 34 may be rotated athand, or the player himself may be rotated horizontally with the twocontrollers in his or her hands.

FIG. 23 and FIG. 24 show the above-described operations based on theattitudes of the controllers in detail. In FIG. 23, M1 and M2 areattitudes of the first controller 34 and the second controller 36,respectively. The attitude is represented by a three-dimensionalrotation matrix, for example, and represents the attitudes obtained bymaking which rotation is made from a reference state. The state as areference is a state in which the first controller 34 and the secondcontroller 36 set face to face with each other so as to becomehorizontal, for example, as shown in FIG. 23( a). Each of the axisdirections of both of the acceleration sensors is shown by x1, y1, z1 inrelation to the first controller 34, and x2, y2, z2 in relation to thesecond controller 36. However, in the reference state in FIG. 23( a),the first controller 34 and the second controller 36 set face to facewith each other such that the respective axial directions are notcoincident. The calculation of the rotation is a rotation representednot by the coordinate system of the acceleration sensors but by thecoordinate system defined within the space (xyz shown in FIG. 23( a)).As an example of setting the coordinate system in this embodiment, thex-direction of the coordinate system is the right direction when viewedfrom the player, that is, the z2 direction in the reference state, the ydirection is the upper direction of the player, that is, the y1 and y2directions as a reference state, and the z direction is the frontdirection when viewed from the player, that is, the x1 direction as areference state.

The attitudes M1 and M5 are decided on the basis of the accelerations.That is, by regarding the accelerations obtained from the firstcontroller 34 and the second controller 36 as gravitationalaccelerations g1 and g2, respectively, and assuming that the directionof gravitational force is the direction vertically below, the attitudesM1 and M2 of the controller are calculated. That is, the accelerationdata g1 and g2 are obtained as vectors in the three-dimensionalcoordinate system of the respective acceleration sensors, and if theacceleration data g1 and g2 are directed to the direction verticallybelow or the negative direction of the y-axis, directions to which therespective axes of the sensors are directed in the space coordinatesystem are relatively defined, and by calculating which rotation of theattitude is made from the reference state, the attitudes M1, M2 are alsocalculated. As shown in FIG. 23( b), in a case that an accelerationapplied to the first controller 34 is changed to g1′, the directions ofx1, y1, z1 when the vector direction of the g1′ is directed to thenegative direction of the y-axis in the space coordinate system are x1′,y1′, z1′, and therefore, the rotation M1′ can be calculated. Aftercompletion of calculating the attitudes M1 and M2, an average attitudeMm obtained by averaging the attitudes M1 and M2 is calculated. Theaverage attitude Mm is utilized for controlling the personal watercraftPO in the game. The use of the average attitude Mm for control allows anatural input even if another operation is made in parallel with onecontroller as well as reduction of an effect from unintentionally input,etc. In addition, in the handles of the motorbikes, some right and lefthandles are not in a straight line, but may form a predetermined angleor may be approximately in parallel with each other. However, even ifthe player holds the two controllers in such states, the averageattitude becomes the attitude the same as a case that the handles areheld in a straight line, and therefore, it is possible to reduce aneffect due to variation in holding manners by the player.

FIG. 23 shows the change of the direction of the specific vectorsdefined for the sake of convenience through the three-dimensionalrotation, and shows the changes of rotations of the respectivecontrollers and the rotation of the average. Here, an average vector ofthe two vectors (y1, y2 directions here) directed to the upper directionof the controllers in the above-described reference state is regarded asa vector ave with respect to the attitudes of the first controller 34and the second controller 36, and with reference to the ave, the averageattitude Mm is explained. In FIG. 23( a) being the reference state, theaverage vector ave is the upper direction, that is, the positivedirection of the y-axis. Then, by the change of the attitudes of therespective controllers, the upward vectors of the controllers becomey1′, y2′, respectively, in FIG. 23( b), and the average vector becomesave′ in FIG. 23( b). In FIG. 23( b), the tilts of the first controller34 and the second controller 36 are different, but the tilt of theaverage vector ave′ is the average between the tilts. Then, theorientation of the personal watercraft PO is decided in correspondenceto the attitude of this average vector. The vector is not actuallyrequired to be calculated, and a rotation Mm′ itself which changes theave to the ave′ may be calculated. The orientation of the personalwatercraft PO is obtained by adding the rotation Mm′ to the attitude inthe reference state, and leaned to the right as shown in FIG. 23( c).The orientation of the personal watercraft PO is obtained by not merelyrotating the attitude in the reference state, but may be decided inadvance in correspondence to the value of the Mm. This makes it possibleto set a pose of the player object on the personal watercraft PO indetail in correspondence to the lean.

Next, with reference to FIG. 24, an operation on the basis of an angularvelocity of the first controller 34 is explained. First, an acceleratingoperation of the personal watercraft PO by adding a twist to the firstcontroller 34 is explained. FIG. 24( a) and FIG. 24( b) respectivelyshow the reference state, and a state of the controllers after operationand the average rotation similar to FIG. 23, and are illustrative viewswhen viewed from a side, that is, viewed along the x-direction definedin the space in FIG. 23. FIG. 24( a) shows the reference state as inFIG. 23( a). Then, FIG. 24( b) shows a state in which a twistingoperation of the first controller 34 toward the player is added. Thatis, this is a state in which an accelerating operation of the personalwatercraft PO is performed regarding the first controller 4 as anaccelerator of a motorbike. At this time, an angular velocity Rz aboutthe z-axis of the first controller 34 (rotation in the pitch directionsince the first controller 34 is horizontally held in this embodiment)is detected by the gyro sensor 104. With respect to the attitudes of thecontrollers, the first controller 34 is largely tilted, but the secondcontroller 36 is not tilted, so that the average rotation Mm′ results ina rotation with a less tilt. That is, in a case that both of the firstcontroller 34 and the second controller 36 are tilted in order to leanthe orientation of the personal watercraft PO, the personal watercraftPO is leaned by the tilt, but in a case that only the first controller34 is twisted for acceleration, the lean of the personal watercraft POis restricted, capable of preventing the personal watercraft PO frombeing leaned unnaturally. The personal watercraft PO is leaned such thatit slightly floats as shown in FIG. 24( c) and accordingly acceleratedwithin the game space oil the basis of the input of the angular velocityRz. That is, since the watercraft PO is floated when accelerated, it ispossible to eliminate an uncomfortable feeling as a motion of thepersonal watercraft too. Thus, if the rotation of the first controller34 is also used for the rotation accelerating operation, the effect ofthe attitude is reduced, and since the watercraft PO is floated whenaccelerated, it is possible to realize an orientation control of theobject by the attitude of the controller and an acceleration of theobject by rotating the controller, simultaneously and withoutuncomfortable feeling.

Furthermore, a case that a yaw direction when viewed from the player,that is, the angular velocity about the y-axis of the first controller34 is detected besides the angular velocity Rz about the z-axis of thefirst controller 34 is explained. When a rotation to the yaw directionis added to the first controller 34 as described above, the personalwatercraft PO rakes a performance, such as horizontally spinning in theair. That is, in a case that the angular velocity Ry is detected in thedirection about the y-axis of the first controller 34, the personalwatercraft PO is horizontally rotated as shown in FIG. 24( d). Since therotation in the yaw direction dose not reflect on calculation of theorientation by accelerations, the player can input this performanceindependent of the orientation control. Here, an input for instructing ahorizontal spinning is not restricted to the angular velocity about they-axis, and may be based on the angular velocity about the x-axis. Thatis, the input of the horizontal spinning is only necessary to be arotation in the yaw direction when viewed from the player. This isbecause such a rotation becomes the rotation about x-axis when the firstcontroller 34 is tilted. With respect to the angular velocity about they-axis and the angular velocity about the x-axis of the first controller34, any one of them may be a condition by bring it into correspondenceto the attitude of the first controller 34, or both of them mayconstantly be a condition.

Next, the flowchart of the program of this embodiment is explained indetail with reference to FIG. 25-FIG. 27. FIG. 25 shows a memory map ofthe data to be used in execution of the program of this embodiment.These data are stored in the internal main memory 62 e and an externalmain memory 66 of the game apparatus 12. Furthermore, the internal mainmemory 62 e and the external main memory 66 also store programs, but theillustration is omitted.

Operation data 201 is operation data to be transmitted from thecontroller 14. In this operation data, first acceleration data 201 aindicating three-axis accelerations of the first controller 34 based onan output from the acceleration sensor 84, second acceleration data 201b indicating three-axis accelerations of the second controller 36 basedon an output from the acceleration sensor 86, angular velocity data 201c indicating three-axis angular velocities of the first controller 34based on an output from the gyro sensor 104, and button data 201 d basedon a button operation, etc are included.

Control data 202, which is calculated on the basis of the operation data201, is data for controlling a game. The control data 202 includes firstattitude data 202 a, second attitude data 202 b, average attitude data202 c, etc. The first attitude data 202 a is an attitude of the firstcontroller 34 calculated on the basis of the first acceleration data 201a, and corresponds to the M1 in FIG. 23 and FIG. 24. The second attitudedata 202 b is an attitude of the second controller 36 to be calculatedon the basis of the second acceleration data 201 b, and corresponds tothe M2 in FIG. 23 and FIG. 24. The average attitude data 202 c is anaverage attitude between the first attitude data 202 a and the secondattitude data 202 b, and corresponds to the Mm in FIG. 23 and FIG. 24.

Each of the attitude data is represented by a three-dimensional rotationmatrix in this embodiments but may be represented by data in otherformats if only the attitude is specified.

The object data 203 is data of an object within the game, and includesat least object orientation data 203 a indicating an orientation of aplayer object (personal watercraft PO in this embodiment) within thegame space, object velocity data 203 b indicating a velocity and amoving direction of the player object within the game space, and objectstate data 203 c indicating a state of the player object, data onwhether or not the watercraft PO is spinning, for example. Here, besidethese, the object data also includes model data indicating the shape ofobjects, texture image data, etc. and also includes data in relation tothe objects except for the player object, but illustration is omittedhere. Furthermore, besides these, data of audio and image which arenecessary for the game are stored as required, but these are omittedhere.

Each of FIG. 26 and FIG. 27 is a flowchart explaining a flow of theprocessing of the game program of the personal watercraft in thisembodiment. The game program is executed by the CPU 60, etc. of the gameapparatus 12.

First, in a step S101, game starting processing is executed to performpredetermined initialization processing.

Next, in a step S102, acquisition of operation data is performed byreading operation data 201 transmitted from the controller 14 and storedin the memory as required.

Next, in a step S103, attitudes of the first controller 34 and thesecond controller 36 are respectively calculated on the basis of thefirst acceleration data 201 a and the second acceleration data 201 bfrom the acquired operation data 201. These attitudes are calculated asa three-dimensional rotation matrix according to the aforementionedmanner, and stored as first attitude data 202 a and second attitude data202 b, respectively.

Next, in a step S104, a rotation matrix being the average between thefirst attitude data 202 a and the second attitude data 202 b iscalculated and stored as average attitude data 202 c.

Then, in a step S105, it is determined whether or not the personalwatercraft PO is spinning. For determination, the object state data 203c is referred, and if it is spinning, the process proceeds to a stepS107, and if the determination result is negative, the process proceedsto a step S106. That is, for the above-described horizontal spinningperformance, several frames of animation is used, and during this time,the personal watercraft PO performs a preset motion, so that the controlof the orientation and velocity is not performed.

In the step S107, processing of spinning performance is performed. Morespecifically, in order to reproduce a spinning motion, the orientationand the position of the personal watercraft PO are set, and the objectorientation data 203 a and the object velocity data 203 b are updated.Here, when the last frame of the spinning motion has come, the objectstate data 203 c is rewritten with data indicating that the personalwatercraft PO is not spinning.

If the determination result is negative in the step S105, processing forrunning is performed. Thus, in the step S106, the orientation of thepersonal watercraft PO is first decided from the average attitude data202 c. That is, the personal watercraft is rotated by the rotationindicated by the average attitude data 202 c from the reference state,and the result of the rotation is stored as object orientation data 203a. Alternatively, the orientation being associated with the value of theaverage attitude data 202 c in advance is read and set to the objectorientation data 203 a.

Next, in a step S108, the moving direction of the personal watercraft POis decided in correspondence to the orientation of the personalwatercraft PO. That is, when the orientation is leaned to the right orleft with respect to the direction of travel, the object velocity data203 b is updated such that the personal watercraft PO is further turnedto the leaned direction depending on the degree of the lean. In theobject velocity data 203 b the moving direction and the moving velocity(moving amount of one frame) of the personal watercraft PO are set. In acase that the moving direction and the moving velocity are representedby a three-dimensional vector, for example, a unit vector indicating theset direction is stored in the step S108, and the length of the vector,that is, the velocity is decided in the processing described later.

Next, in a step 109, with reference to the angular velocity data 201 c,it is determined whether or not the first controller 34 makes apredetermined rotation in a yaw direction from the player. Morespecifically, it is determined whether or not the value of the angularvelocity about the y-axis and/or the x-axis is equal to or more than apredetermined threshold value.

If the determination result is affirmative in the step S109, since ahorizontally spinning performance is instructed, spin startingprocessing is executed in a step S110. More specifically, the objectstate data 203 c is updated to the data indicating that the watercraftPO is spinning, and the orientation and the position of the personalwatercraft PO are set such that they represent the first frame of thehorizontally spinning motion.

If the determination result is negative in the step S109, horizontallyspinning is not performed, and therefore, in a next step S111, withreference to the angular velocity data 201 c, it is determined whetheror not there is an angular velocity about the x axis of the firstcontroller 34 equal to or more than a threshold value. This is fordetermining whether or not the first controller 34 is twisted by theplayer to perform an acceleration instruction.

If the determination result in the step S111 is affirmative, thevelocity of the personal watercraft PO is accelerated by a predeterminedamount in a step S112, the length of the vector of the object velocitydata is updated, and then, the process proceeds to a step S201. If thedetermination result in the step S111 is negative, the process proceedsto the step S201 without going through the step S112.

In the step S201, it is determined whether or not the accelerator buttonis pressed on the basis of the button data 201 d. The accelerator buttonis the B button 46 h, for example, and if the button is pressed, thedetermination is affirmative, and if the button is not pressed, thedetermination is negative.

In a case that the determination result is affirmative in the step S201,the velocity of the personal watercraft PO is increased by apredetermined amount in a step S202, and the process proceeds to thestep S111. If the determination result is negative in the step S109, theprocess directly proceeds to the step S111. Here, with respect to theacceleration of the personal watercraft PO in the steps S112 and S202,if the increased velocity is set to be larger in the acceleration in thestep S112, the accelerator by twisting the first controller 34 can beused as a dash instruction useable only when acceleration is especiallymade.

In a step S203, by decreasing the length of the vector of the objectvelocity data 203 c by a predetermined ratio, processing of decreasingthe velocity of the personal watercraft PO by a predetermine ratio fromthe current velocity is performed. The decrease of the velocity is forrepresenting a resistance of water or air in the reality, and the higherthe velocity is, the larger the velocity to be decreased is. Thus, ifthe accelerator button is continuously pressed, at a time when thevelocity is high to a certain extent, the accelerated amount and thedecelerated amount are equal to each other to maintain a constantvelocity. Furthermore, in a case that a further acceleration is made bytwisting the first controller 34 in a state that the accelerator buttonis continuously pressed, the velocity is temporarily accelerated andthen gradually decreased to a constant velocity. If an operation foracceleration is not performed, the personal watercraft PO is naturallydecelerated to be stopped.

By the processing from the above-described steps S111 to S203, themoving direction and the moving velocity (moving amount per unit oftime) of the personal watercraft PO are calculated, and these are storedas a three-dimensional vector in the object velocity data 203 b.

Next, in a step S204, the personal watercraft PO is arranged at anorientation indicated by the object orientation data 203 a and aposition moved by the object velocity data 203 b within the game space.

Next, in a step S205, the virtual camera is moved so as to follow thepersonal watercraft POs such that the personal watercraft PO isconstantly displayed on the screen.

Besides, with respect to the objects other than the personal watercraftPO, updating the positions and orientations are appropriately performedfor the game, and in a step S206, displaying processing is performed. Inthe step S206, the processing of producing a two-dimensional screen onthe basis of the position of the virtual camera and the arrangement ofthe polygon model, and displaying the same on the screen is performed,but this processing may preferably be performed by the CPU 62 b in placeof the CPU 60.

In a step S207, it is determined whether or not a game is to be ended onthe basis of a predetermined condition, such as making a mistake in thegame or clearing the game. If the game is to be ended, the gameprocessing is ended. If the game is not to be ended, the process returnsto the step S102. Accordingly, the game processing in this embodiment isexecuted for each frame of period for displaying the game screen.

According to the above-described game processing, it is possible toexecute a game of moving the personal watercraft PO within the gamespace by moving the first controller 34 and the second controller 36. Bythe attitude of the controller, the orientation and the moving directionof the personal watercraft PO are controlled, and on the basis of theangular velocity from the gyro sensor, the personal watercraft PO can beaccelerated or horizontally spun. This makes it possible to perform anintuitive operation as if the player actually operates the personalwatercraft. Furthermore, on the basis of the attitude being the averagebetween the respective controllers, the orientation and the movingdirection of the personal watercraft PO can be controlled, so that it ispossible to control an unnatural motion of the personal watercraft POdue to an abrupt input, and satisfy both of the direction control by theattitude and the acceleration control by the twist.

This embodiment is the game of the personal watercraft, and allows wavesto occur within the game space, and therefore, the personal watercraftPO may be jumped depending on the size of the waves to be ridden by thepersonal watercraft PO. Then, the orientation control in the pitchdirection and performance of horizontally spinning of the personalwatercraft may be made only during the jumping.

This embodiment is an example of the personal watercraft, but it isneedless to say that this can be applied to games which make anoperation of general motorbikes according to a similar way of operation.In addition, this can be applied to games operating various objectsbesides the above description.

Additionally, in this embodiment, the gyro sensor unit 100 is attachedto only the first controller 34, but the gyro sensor may also beprovided to the second controller 36. If the two gyro sensors are used,a further complex operation is made possible. Furthermore, the gyrosensor 104 may be constructed to be included in the first controller 34and the second controller 36.

Although the present invention has been described and illustrated indetail, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustrationand example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, the spiritand scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms ofthe appended claims.

1. A non-transitory storage medium readable by a computer of a gameapparatus having a first input device including a first accelerationsensor and a second input device being movable independently of saidfirst input device and including a second acceleration sensor and anangular velocity sensor provided to at least any one of said first inputdevice and said second input device, and performing game processing onthe basis of operation data output from said first input device and saidsecond input device, said storage medium storing a game program, andsaid game program causes said computer to execute instructions,comprising: acquiring first acceleration data based on an output fromsaid first acceleration sensor of said first input device, secondacceleration data based on an output from said second accelerationsensor of said second input device and angular velocity data based on anoutput from said angular velocity sensor, on the basis of said operationdata, the second input device being movable independently of said firstinput device; controlling an orientation of an object within a gamespace on the basis of said first acceleration data and said secondacceleration data; and controlling a motion of said object on the basisof said angular velocity data.
 2. The non-transitory storage mediumaccording to claim 1, wherein a moving velocity of said object iscontrolled such that said object accelerates within said game space onthe basis of an angular velocity about a predetermined axis.
 3. Thenon-transitory storage medium according to claim 2, wherein a movingvelocity of said object is controlled such that said object accelerateswithin said game space in a case a value of said angular velocity aboutthe predetermined axis is above a threshold value.
 4. The non-transitorystorage medium according to claim 1, wherein said object is rotated onthe basis of an angular velocity about a predetermined axis.
 5. Thenon-transitory storage medium according to claim 1, wherein said gameprogram causes said computer to execute instructions further comprising:calculating an average attitude being an average of the attitudes ofsaid first input device and said second input device on the basis ofsaid first acceleration data and said second acceleration data, andcalculating an orientation of an object within said game space incorrespondence to said calculated average attitude.
 6. Thenon-transitory storage medium according to claim 5, wherein said gameprogram causes said computer to execute instructions further comprising:calculating an attitude of said first input device from said firstacceleration data, calculating an attitude of said second input devicefrom said second acceleration data, and averaging the calculatedattitude of said first input device and the calculated attitude of saidsecond input device.
 7. The non-transitory storage medium according toclaim 1, wherein said game program causes said computer to furtherexecute instructions comprising setting a moving direction of saidobject according to the calculated orientation.
 8. The non-transitorystorage medium according to claim 7, wherein said first input deviceand/or said second input device has at least one operatable button, andbutton operation data indicating that said button is operated on thebasis of said operation data is acquired, and a moving velocity of saidobject is controlled to a direction set on the basis of said buttonoperation data.
 9. The non-transitory storage medium according to claim8, wherein said object is accelerated in the direction set on the basisof an angular velocity about a predetermined axis.
 10. A game apparatushaving a first input device including a first acceleration sensor, asecond input device being movable independently of said first inputdevice and including a second acceleration sensor and an angularvelocity sensor provided to at least any one of said first input deviceand said second input device, and performing game processing on thebasis of operation data output from said first input device and saidsecond input device, comprising: a data acquiring unit for acquiringfirst acceleration data based on an output from said first accelerationsensor of said first input device, second acceleration data based on anoutput from said second acceleration sensor of said second input deviceand angular velocity data based on an output from said angular velocitysensor, on the basis of said operation data, the second input devicebeing movable independently of said first input device; an objectorientation controlling unit for controlling an orientation of an objectwithin a game space on the basis of said first acceleration data andsaid second acceleration data; and an object movement controlling unitfor controlling a movement of said object on the basis of said angularvelocity data.
 11. A game controlling method of a game apparatus havinga first input device including a first acceleration sensor, a secondinput device being movable independently of said first input device andincluding a second acceleration sensor and an angular velocity sensorprovided to at least any one of said first input device and said secondinput device, and performing game processing on the basis of operationdata output from said first input device and said second input device,the method comprising: acquiring first acceleration data based on anoutput from said first acceleration sensor of said first input device,second acceleration data based on an output from said secondacceleration sensor of said second input device and angular velocitydata based on an output from said angular velocity sensor, on the basisof said operation data, the second input device being movableindependently of said first input device; controlling an orientation ofan object within a game space on the basis of said first accelerationdata and said second acceleration data; and controlling a movement ofsaid object on the basis of said angular velocity data.
 12. A gamesystem, comprising: a display device configured to display image data;and a game apparatus coupled to the display device and having a firstinput device including a first acceleration sensor, a second inputdevice being movable independently of said first input device andincluding a second acceleration sensor and an angular velocity sensorprovided to at least any one of said first input device and said secondinput device, and performing game processing on the basis of operationdata output from said first input device and said second input device,the game apparatus further comprising: a data acquiring unit foracquiring first acceleration data based on an output from said firstacceleration sensor of said first input device, second acceleration databased on an output from said second acceleration sensor of said secondinput device and angular velocity data based on an output from saidangular velocity sensor, on the basis of said operation data, the secondinput device being movable independently of said first input device, anobject orientation controlling unit for controlling an orientation of anobject within a game space on the basis of said first acceleration dataand said second acceleration data, and an object movement controllingunit for controlling a movement of said object on the basis of saidangular velocity data.